Asset intensive industries like mining, oil & gas, and manufacturing work with heavy machinery and equipment that warrants periodic maintenance. Even a heavy-duty machine that is designed to work optimally under tough conditions also may fail if it is not properly maintained, disrupting an organization's production activity. Hence, it is important to identify and assess the equipment criticality to better plan your maintenance to ensure seamless production activity.
In the modern industrial landscape, grasping the concept of equipment criticality is crucial for sustaining operational efficiency. This blog dives into the definition of equipment criticality, its significance in maintenance operations, and outlines the four essential steps for identifying and assessing equipment criticality. We will also throw light on how Propel Apps' mobile Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) solution can support your risk assessment initiatives.
Equipment criticality is an important metric to assess the importance of a specific equipment within a production framework. Using this metric, you can assess the frequency of inspection that the equipment under question needs inspection and which maintenance tasks should be given priority, based on the potential effects of equipment failure. The assessment of equipment criticality comprises of two basic components: Vulnerability and Criticality. Let's understand each of these components briefly:
When you clearly understand these basic components, you get a quantitative understanding about when to prioritize your maintenance activity, so your resources are well planned and notified in advance to take up such critical activities.
To effectively manage equipment criticality, follow and execute these four detailed steps:
Prepare a list of all the inventory of your machinery that has the tendency to easily disrupt your production activity if there has been a failure. This list should include both critical and non-critical equipment, so you can get a 360-degree view to critical evaluate the complete machinery. Also, it's a good practice to segregate equipment as per the function and vitality within your overall production eco-system.
Form a multi-disciplinary team who should be from different departments. These members should be selected, based on their expertise and understanding of the maintenance operations. This type of collaboration provides a strong platform for assessment, since each member brings different perspectives and insights. It's your responsibility to make them understand about their roles, so they can strike an open communication throughout the evaluation process.
Devise a scientific rating system, based on a proper ranking (scoring) system to evaluate the vulnerability and criticality of the equipment. This rating system can be on a scale of 1-5.
ScoreRatingResult1UnlikelyEquipment is in good condition with remote chance of risk.2PossibleEquipment is reliable but there might be minor chances of issues under certain circumstances.3ModerateThere is a considerable chance of failure, which need some attention.4ProbableIf your machinery has become old and obsolete, these facts contribute to high risk. This warrants immediate attention to your equipment.5ImminentThis is the highest criticality value, meaning your equipment is almost in the danger zone of failure. This implies your equipment is going to malfunction soon, requiring urgent attention.
ScoreRatingResult1NegligibleThis is a minimal criticality value, meaning you will have negligible impact on production if your equipment fails.2MinorIf you get a minor value, you can still manage your production process without any critical failures.3ImportantThere is a considerable chance of failure, which need some attention.4SignificantThis is a critical figure, which means you will encounter major operational disruptions and significant losses if the production facility halts.5CriticalThis is a maximum criticality value. If you get this figure, this means your production is severely hampered leading to critical financial losses or safety hazards on account of failure of your machinery.
Once you got the required scores, the next and the last step is to implement a risk matrix.
Leverage a risk matrix to convert vulnerability and criticality scores into a comprehensive risk rating. Risk matrix is a visual tool that lets you segregate equipment into low, medium, or high-risk groups, as per the scores that you derive. By analyzing this matrix, you know when to prioritize your maintenance activities effectively - with high-risk equipment getting the maximum attention.
By scrupulously executing the above steps, you can formulate a strong maintenance strategy that reduces unplanned failures, thereby improving your overall maintenance efficiency.
A mobile EAM solution plays a vital role in catalyzing the identification, evaluation and fixing your equipment risk. In this context, explore a good mobile EAM solution like that offered by Propel Apps that ticks all the right parameters, while offering the best value for your investment. Propel Apps' mobile EAM solution integrates with your in-house ERP system (Oracle or SAP) providing several key features to mitigate equipment risk and fostering good maintenance practices. Some of its features include:
To know more about this solution and how it can help in identifying and evaluating your equipment risk, schedule a free demo with us.
Properly understanding equipment criticality is a vital area for maintenance managers to strategize and implement a fool-proof maintenance strategy. By critically evaluating equipment risk using a scientific methodology, you can prioritize work orders more effectively. Furthermore, when you leverage a mobile EAM solution like that offered by Propel Apps that integrates with your in-house ERP system like Oracle or SAP, you derive valuable insights about your equipment performance.
Research from Gartner reveals that organizations adopting effective maintenance strategies can slash operational costs by as much as 30% and boost productivity by nearly 25% .
These valuable insights help you prioritize your maintenance tasks, based on equipment criticality, rather than guesswork or intuition. Simply stated, a mobile EAM solution provides the right direction to properly align your maintenance program, based on your equipment criticality, which only helps to foster a healthy and a proactive maintenance culture in your organization.
